Scholarship@Villanova: Lara Brown, Ph.D.

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Lara M. Brown Ph.D. is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University. Her talk will discuss her recently published book, Jockeying for the American Presidency. Dr. Brown has also published several articles in journals such as Congress and the Presidency, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Political Marketing.
In her book, Dr. Brown presents the first systematic study of presidential aspirants from the 1790s to the present. She delves into the concept of political opportunism and reveals its significance in shaping the partisan and electoral competition in America. Dr. Brown not only demonstrates the ways in which the constitutional design of the Electoral College structures aspirant behaviors, but it also suggests that opportunistic aspirants have driven the institutional development of the major political parties and the presidential selection method. Brown illuminates the ways in which presidential aspirants turn political conditions and exogenous events to their favor in order to promote their ambitions, or more concisely, how they learn and play at the game of presidential politics.